Empowering Young Families: Our Legacy, Our Future

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Tues., June 30, 2015

We Need a State Budget NOW!

With a deadline looming at midnight tonight, Illinois is still without an approved budget. If the situation continues into tomorrow, Illinois will no longer be able to pay its bills, creating a chilling effect on non-profit and social service organizations that rely on the state for a significant portion of their annual funding, including Teen Parent Connection (TPC).

TPC provides a continuum of care to young parents 12 – 22 years of age—and their children ages 0 to 5—across all of DuPage County. Our comprehensive programming and services work in tandem toward the goals of preventing child abuse and increasing self-sufficiency.

THE IMPACT ON YOUR COMMUNITY

If no budget is passed, TPC will no longer be able to effectively serve…

130 – 155 teen parents through our Healthy Families program

45 – 50 parents through our Doula program

125 – 150 individuals via Childbirth Education classes

175 – 200 teen parents via our Group Services

2 – 4participants in our Scholarship program

175 – 200families via our Parents’ Pantry

12,000 – 14,000students via our Prevention Program

Over 80% of those we serve are considered very low- or extremely low-income. These young parents and their children are our community’s most vulnerable residents, and the services we provide to them are critical to their ability to provide a healthy environment for themselves and their children.

TPC is the ONLY organization exclusively focused on this population, and almost 50% of our annual budget is funded by grants from the State of Illinois.

The lack of action by our state will be devastating to TPC’s clients, putting even greater pressure and stress on those who can least absorb it, placing them in further jeopardy and threatening their nutrition and health, their peace of mind, and their capacity to provide for their own basic needs.

We ask you to join us in demanding that Governor Rauner work with the Illinois State Legislature to resolve this crisis NOW, so that Teen Parent Connection can continue to help our families live a life free from abuse and full of promise!